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拍品專文
Paulus Moreelse primarily worked as a civic portraitist in his native Utrecht but was also among the first Dutch painters to create Arcadian images of shepherds and shepherdesses, a genre that flourished in Utrecht in the first half of the seventeenth century. Born to a wealthy family in Utrecht, Moreelse studied in Delft with the portrait painter Michiel van Mierevelt. A subsequent period of travel in Italy enhanced his studies by providing an opportunity for him to learn first-hand about artistic production south of the Alps. By 1596, he had returned to Utrecht and joined the saddle-makers’ guild, to which painters belonged before 1611, when Moreelse and Abraham Bloemaert (among others) founded the city’s chapter of the Guild of St. Luke. In addition to being one of Utrecht’s leading painters, Moorelse was deeply involved in the city’s civic life, serving as an architect and urban planner. He joined the town council in 1618 and later supported the founding of the city’s university. Moreelse’s public presence helped advance his artistic career, furnishing him with numerous prominent commissions.
The artistic precedent for this painting of a shepherdess can be found in the flute-playing shepherds painted by Giorgione and his school, which Moreelse and his contemporaries may have observed on their Italian tours. However, the contemporary impetus for such subject matter was literary rather than visual. While Arcadian and pastoral texts had circulated throughout Western Europe in the preceding centuries, they were first published in the Low Countries in the early 1600s. Among the most famous of these was Granida, a play by Pieter Cornelisz. Hooft, which contemplated the duality between idealistic love and blatant eroticism. Published in 1615, Granida provided ample subject matter for Moreelse, whose first images of amorous shepherds and shepherdesses date to 1622. These images were avidly consumed by Utrecht’s elite, appealing both to their nobility and baser senses.
This painting was in the eighteenth century believed to be by Peter Paul Rubens and depict his second wife, Helena Fourment.
The artistic precedent for this painting of a shepherdess can be found in the flute-playing shepherds painted by Giorgione and his school, which Moreelse and his contemporaries may have observed on their Italian tours. However, the contemporary impetus for such subject matter was literary rather than visual. While Arcadian and pastoral texts had circulated throughout Western Europe in the preceding centuries, they were first published in the Low Countries in the early 1600s. Among the most famous of these was Granida, a play by Pieter Cornelisz. Hooft, which contemplated the duality between idealistic love and blatant eroticism. Published in 1615, Granida provided ample subject matter for Moreelse, whose first images of amorous shepherds and shepherdesses date to 1622. These images were avidly consumed by Utrecht’s elite, appealing both to their nobility and baser senses.
This painting was in the eighteenth century believed to be by Peter Paul Rubens and depict his second wife, Helena Fourment.